For those of you who attended the recent SRA meeting in St. Louis, a
session on one mechanism NIH is exploring directly pertains to this
discussion.  Session M4 explained how the NIH Commons could be used
to create PDF versions of your NIH application.  The data used to
fill in the form fields would be saved and input to NIH databases -
with the obvious advantages to NIH.  Thus far, you can see the
direct parallel to the NSF FastLane system (although the interface
would be different).  What makes this most attractive to you and me
is that NIH is proposing to make available not only the printable
PDF file (still like FastLane) but the underlying data as well.  If
you have not tried it, the FDF (Form Data File) can be imported into
other campus-based forms and campus-based databases.  Imagine, at
least for those fields on NIH applications, importing (not rekeying)
the information on your internal routing form and importing (not
rekeying) the information into your proposal tracking system.  The
only current hang-up is lack of appropriated funds for implementing
the NIH process.

The next time you use iPDF forms for a submission, you might try
creating the FDF datafile from your completed iPDF forms and using
it as suggested above.

===============================
Wil Emmert
Research and Sponsored Programs
Western Michigan University
3210 Sangren Hall
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
616-387-6183   FAX:  616-387-6184
e-mail:  xxxxxx@wmich.edu
===============================
Write the bad things that are done to you in the sand,
 but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of
marble.
-Arabian adage

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================